The Police and the Nurse

Last Friday morning, a police officer from Angolares, the capital town of the district of Caué, the poorest district of the Island of Sao Tome, followed and stopped Nurse Ana Maria, an ADRA STP worker.
Ana Maria is the responsible person for the ADRA project activities with women and girls in the district of Caué where she works directly with 6 women and girls associations, promoting health, education, income generating and women rights and participation in the society.
After the initial surprise for having been followed by the police – nurse Ana was informed that the Women and Girls from the ADRA supported association from the community of Ribeira Peixe had filled an official complaint and were requesting action from the police.
The reason for the complaint was that after the association organized a cleaning activity in the community, a person from the community defecated in one of the places that had been cleaned. The group decided to make a stand point, denouncing the situation to the police and making everyone know that they stand by new values and that the cleaning of their community protect them, their children and everyone else against diseases like cholera.
With the intervention of nurse Ana, the situation was resolved but the stand point was made and a clear message was sent, the women from Ribeira Peixe stand for hygiene practices.
The project - developing women’s and girls competencies - is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland and ADRA Finland.

Small Libraries for Children

On January 18, ADRA STP received a 20 ft. container filled with educational and other child related materials.
Among those:
- 480 boxes of educational books and magazines.
- Several volumes of didactic materials
- 110 boxes with new sport shoes from the brand “Status”
The materials were donated through ADRA Portugal by families and private companies.
The major activity to achieve will be the creation and amelioration of small libraries in schools in the districts of Caué, Cantagalo and Pagué (Principe). All other materials will be distributed to child support institutions and Primary schools from the rural areas.
In 2004 ADRA STP, implemented a similar project establishing 4 small libraries in Sao Tomé and 2 in the Island of Principe. After more than two years, all 6 small libraries continue functioning and providing access to books to hundreds of children’s.

ADRA office in Principe (test post)

With around 6.000 persons and even fewer opportunities than their fellow countrymen of Sao Tome, the inhabitants of Principe face the same problems lived in Sao Tome aggravated by its extreme isolation.
ADRA STP has been active in the Island of Principe but with intermittent activities and without any possibility of following through its interventions.
With the support of AWARE-RH and with funding from USAID, ADRA will establish an office in the Island to serve as base for a Health System and Community Strengthening project.
The ADRA Project Administrator for Principe – Jordão da Neves – will represent ADRA and serve as a link with the central office in order to allow the agency to better respond to the needs and promote the development of the Island of Principe. Jordão das Neves has been serving for the last 4 years as the ADRA project coordinator for an Education project and has been appointed for other functions as serving as a Consultant linking the UNICEF Offices and the Implementing Partners at the Government level.
“The upcoming opportunity to open an office extending our activities in Principe is a dream we have been pursuing and that will finally allow us to truly be called ADRA Sao Tomé and Príncipe, … ,Principe is one of the most beautiful Islands in the Atlantic and we feel privileged to be able to support its development and its people.” said Emanuel Costa, country director of ADRA.